Their menus have been inspired by the famous Indian lunchtime tradition of taking tiffin – a light midday meal collected from workers’ homes and delivered to offices in the familiar stacked steel boxes.

The 100 cover Tiffin Truck Indian restaurant also has dining in options for both lunch and evenings, an exclusive area for private dining, corporate catering options, special occasion catering and a delivery service. The restaurant will offer a friendly ambience and an exciting menu designed by Executive Chef Kamaladasan.

Kamaladasan, who trained at Michelin-starred London restaurant Tamarind, said: “All of our delicately flavoured meals are inspired by the home cooking familiar to office workers across India who enjoy healthy, fresh food at lunchtime every day.

“We have taken those beloved family recipes and give them a fresh twist to make lunchtimes a bit more exciting. We also offer a warm and friendly dining experience in the restaurant for both lunchtimes and evenings.”

A traditional tiffin lunch comes in a metal container with two to four layers that lock together to keep hot meals warm and fresh. It usually contains rice, dal, curry, vegetables, salad, chapattis or spicy meats.

Diners can also enjoy the restaurant’s street food favourites such as filled dosas, idlis and thali, as well as Indian beers and cocktails.

Take away meals will be offered in either cardboard boxes or in the famous metal tiffin boxes, which will be available to buy or can be borrowed if a deposit is left.

Tiffin dates back to the days of the Raj where the British custom of afternoon tea was replaced the local Indian practice of taking a light meal at that hour. It attracted the name tiffin, which was originally a British slang word for a swig of liquor. Since then the idea has taken root.

Every week day in Mumbai, where the tiffin tradition began, you can still see hundreds of tiffin wallahs racing around the streets with their bicycles or handcarts piled high with stainless steel tiered boxes, delivering hot lunches to workers.

The restaurant is being launched by cousins Krishna Vijayakumar and Arun K Chandran, who own the popular Navadhanya restaurant on Newmarket Road. Navadhanya has been open for three years and is one of the highly ranked Indian restaurants in Cambridge on TripAdvisor and is listed in the Michelin Guide 2018.

Krishna said: “We were inspired to bring a tiffin-style lunch to Cambridge after many of our diners at Navadhanya restaurant asked if we could deliver food. We thought we could brighten up office lunchtimes with our new concept and offer a more casual style of eating at the Tiffin Truck restaurant.”